Mina

The dull sound of my fist connecting with the punching bag echoes within in the training room, and a sense of satisfaction courses through me. I give it another swing and watch it teeter slowly back and forth. I hoped that by letting out my frustration and anger out through training would help me calm down in a way. But it didn’t.

Every time I think back to what Minseok told me last night, my hands would begin to shake and my eyes would water. It wasn’t fair. The one chance I had to prove to others that I wasn’t as weak as I appear was snatched away from me in the matter of days. Possibly the only chance I really had to repay my brother for all the times he’s saved me was gone.

“What did that thing ever do to you?” Chanyeol asks, amusement clear in his voice. I look over my shoulder, finding that he was standing right behind me.

Staring at his teasing smile irked me in a way. Did he know about the secret meetings? Did he take part in them? Why didn’t he ever tell me when we were considered to be such close friends?

“You okay?” his head tilts to the side, his expression turning worrisome. “Did something happen?”

“Did you know?” I ask, unwanted accusation in my tone. “About the meetings?”
 

“The ones about W.O.M.A.? We go to the same ones, don’t we?” Chanyeol looks genuinely confused my question but I’m blinded by my offense to notice.

“Do we?”

“Mina, what the hell are you going on about?” He begins to look exasperated but after seeing the pained look on my face, he sighs.

“Who told you?”
 

“That doesn’t matter. What does matter is the fact you knew I was going to get kicked off the mission and didn’t have the decency of telling me.” I reply, glancing past him to glare at two recruits who had stopped sparring to watch us. They quickly ducked their heads and turned away from me, their faces blooming in color from being caught.

“I couldn’t,” he explains, “Suho swore us to secrecy and I owe the guy too much to go against him. You need to understand our positions, Mina. You know I would never try to hurt you intentionally.”

I bite my tongue, refusing to let another vulgar comment escape my lips. Chanyeol was right, in a way. I shouldn’t be taking my anger out on my friends for keeping a secret they had no choice but to hold. Instead, I should confront the very man himself.

Chanyeol places a hand on my arm and pulls me towards him, engulfing me in his arms. He locks his arms together, leaving me no way of escaping his grasp.

“Just leave it to us, okay?” He places his chin on my head and lets out another sigh. “Focus on locating other Holders who need safety, yeah? Those rescue groups need a leader like you to guide them.”

I scoff at his words, “yeah, right. Who’d want someone who can’t even use her powers correctly as their superior?”

“Me.” His answer is soft, and gentle. Something that I’m not used to when talking to Chanyeol. He must have registered what he said because in the next second, he’s releasing me from his arms and clearing his throat. “I mean, you’re really smart and understand what needs to be done during critical times. The past rescue missions you have been on were successful because of the ideas you would pitch in. An idiot would be blind to see that.”

“I guess Suho’s that idiot, then.” I snort, looking down at my feet and fixating my gaze to watch my toe repeatedly press against the pavement. “Thanks, Yeol. You’re a nice psychiatrist.”

“Anytime,” he smiles widely. “You sure you’re going to be okay?”

“Of course.”

␛␛␛

Not.

My dear friend was delusional if he thought I was going to let an incident like this just pass by without a word of my own being put in. My hotheadedness always got the best of me which is the reason for my rapid knocking against Suho’s office door to occur.

“It’s opened,” his voice calls out.

I close my eyes and take in a deep breath, reminding myself to not barge in there and demand an explanation for my disbandment. I open my eyes the same time I’m opening the door, and walk in to an empty room, save for Suho who was seated on one of the couches.

“Oh, Mina,” he looks surprised to see me and I don’t blame him. We hadn’t talked much since my slip-up other than the polite greetings we did when we passed each other in the hallways. “What’s up?”
 

“About Sehun’s rescue mission…” I struggle to phrase my sentence without giving away any suspicion. After contemplating my next words, I say, “we still have no idea when it’s happening, right?”

“Mhm,” he nods, “nothing can be finalized until Yixing can secure more information for us.”
 

“What kind of information?” I innocently ask, walking over to sit across from his form. I expectantly stare at him, awaiting his answer. Suho glances to the left when he speaks, again.

“Oh, you know, just the kind of things you’d see action movies plan for. Like what time a guard goes on a break and stuff. That kind of thing, you know?” Once finished, Suho looks back at me and I grin.

You see, Jongdae and I had picked up something about Suho a while back that we’re sure many people don’t know about. He never makes direct eye contact with you when he lies. In fact, he looks to his left whenever he does. It was a small detail that had went unnoticed for quite some time until Jongdae pointed it out to me after a short briefing one day. I wasn’t able to let that fact go ever since.

“You don’t have to keep this act up,” I reply, watching his expression take on one of shock. “The ‘pretending I’m still on the mission’ one, I mean.”

“Where did you hear that from?”

I ignore his question and continue on, “I just want to know why I can’t infiltrate the building to save Sehun with you guys. It can’t be just because of how worked up I had gotten over Yixing the other day.” I clutch my knee, finally looking away from him, “Just tell me why I can’t participate in the mission anymore. Please.” Suho’s voice is full of sympathy when he tells me the same reason I had been thinking of this entire time.

“I’m sorry, Mina. But we can’t risk having someone who isn’t able to use their powers.”